Sports Preview: Dexter soccer team reloads following state run in 2014

Scott Forrester is letting his boys’ soccer team go through the paces during an inter-squad scrimmage on a hot Monday afternoon. Then he sees a problem with their spacing and stops the game in its tracks.

The longtime and successful soccer coach is going over some different options on where to play the ball and where to move to in order to create more space on the field giving them a better road to take up the field.

He has everyone’s full attention. As he should.

Forrester has built a soccer dynasty at Dexter, both on the girls and boys side of the field. They have been the most successful team in the SEC White Division since he took over as coach 12 years ago and with success comes respect.

The Dreadnaughts went 20-4-2 last season and lost in the state semifinals on penalty kicks. They also won the SEC White Division – again.

Expectations for the Dreads are high – again – heading into the 2015 season.

“I hope we can win the SEC again like we have in recent years and again win Districts,” said senior midfielder Ben VanderRoest, one of the team’s captains. “And hopefully we can get into regionals again like we did last year.”

Senior Ben Elliott returns in goal for Dexter and also is a team captain for 2015.

“We need to work on getting our new formation down and work on our offense,” he said. “We lost a lot of seniors from last year and hope these juniors coming up can fill in those spots and get us to where we got last year.”

Seniors Tucker Swan and Griffin Keough also return for the Dreadnaughts.

“Our keys this year is developing an ability to finish on the scoring opportunities we create,” Forrester said. “We need to limit the number of turnovers given up with bad passes and or dribbling into pressure.”

There is always optimism when it comes to Dexter soccer.

“The overall outlook is good,” Forrester said. “We may not be able to make a deep run into the tournament like last year but we should be very competitive.”